Feral, Floral, Forgotten
by Jonquille Theravada
Summary: "...and stayed in love always." This is a series of drabbles and oneshots, mostly from the marauder era, involving Lily, James, Severus, and everyone you love. Canon, not in chronological order. The rating is for safety. Enjoy.
1. Chapter 1

"It'll scar, I think," Severus said as he examined his friend's skinned knee. "When we go to Hogwarts next year, you could find a spell to get rid of it, though."

Lily hadn't cried throughout the entire ordeal. Had Severus fallen off his bicycle, as she did, he thought he might have. Her bravery was admirable. Everything about her was, at least to him.

"Y-you think so, Sev?" The girl held her head high, but her brow was knit ever-so-slightly and Severus knew she was in pain.

"Of course," he answered, "but even if you don't, I'll still like you."

Lily smiled brightly then. Severus found himself grinning stupidly back, appreciating every delicate feature on his friend's pretty face, before realizing he was staring. His expression went blank and he awkwardly glanced at his hands. Lily didn't seem to notice, though, or at least pretended not to. He really liked that about her, how she never judged anyone, especially him. She was so unfailingly kind. He had no idea how he was lucky enough to find a witch his age in his town, let alone one as astonishing as her.

So it wasn't surprising that Severus Snape fell in love with Lily Evans, and stayed in love always.


	2. Chapter 2

"Ah, Sirius! I'm in love!" A moderately drunk James said as he collapsed on his bed in the boys' Gryffindor dorm.

"I knew I was attractive, mate, but you need to keep those sorts of feelings to yourself," Sirius teased back, laughing a little at the goofy expression on his best friend's face.

"I don't care what you say. Tomorrow will be the day she says yes. I have a good feeling about tomorrow."

"You won't be feeling so lucky when you're getting hexed on top of that hangover you're going to have," Sirius answered. He'd seen this happen for the past two and a half years, since a 13-year-old James had come to terms with his crush and chose to deal with it in a more mature way. And by more mature, he meant that rather than embarrass the lucky girl by targeting her through pranks, he'd instead humiliate her with absurd confessions of love and invitations to Hogsmeade she never accepted.

"Not this time. She can't say no to me _every _time. What are the odds of that?"

"With a face like yours? Incredibly high," Sirius joked. "Really, Prongs. Any girl would say yes but her. Why not ask out Mary or—" Upon seeing his friend's expression, he shifted gears a bit. "Or at least see other girls to bide time while your lovely little Lily-flower comes around?"

"No, I've been making so much progress. Lily would think I wasn't interested if I just went off with one of her friends like that."

Sirius burst out laughing. "Progress? Do you consider a bat-bogey hex last week progress?" James's face fell and Sirius quickly sobered up. It wasn't that Sirius disliked Lily at all. In fact, he found he liked her a lot when she wasn't busy going mental over silly little things like hexing 4th-year Slytherins as she did the other day. He did dislike, however, what the girl did to his best friend, and he hated seeing James moping around like he'd rather take the Killing Curse. "Well, let me know how that goes." Swallowing his pride, he added, "good luck, Prongs."


	3. Chapter 3

"Evans! Wait up! _Evans_!" James Potter was careening through the hallway, avoiding the shorter students crowding around him.

A pretty red-headed teenager spun around and glared. "What is it this time, Potter?"

"I made you a list," he answered, cheeks flushed just a bit from the exertion of energy it took just to catch up with her. "Merlin, how do you move so fast?"

"A list?" Lily Evans asked, raising an eyebrow. She looked skeptical, but James appraised the situation and decided that he'd caught her in a decent mood and proceeded with what he was doing.

"A list of reasons why you should date me, of course."

"I can think of several already," Lily said, smiling a little too alluringly.

"W-what?" James stuttered, taken aback. His eyes were wide, his mouth went dry. This might be it.

Pleased at having caught such a cocky, impossible boy off-guard, Lily continued, beginning to walk as she spoke, "You're devastatingly handsome, charming, filthy rich, every girl wants you…and you're _far _too modest about it." Her expression turned dangerous. "Oh, and you're exceedingly kindhearted. Why, just last week, Severus told me you were nice enough to help him with his homework. Is that true?" She spun around to face a very terrified James.

James looked around for an escape. Finding none, he faced what was coming to him. His ego couldn't help but open his mouth to add his two cents, though.

"He had that coming to him," he said, a little two bitterly, "with all the Junior Death Eater shit. He gets involved in things he shouldn't." _Including snooping around Lupin_, he added in his head.

Lily's jaw had dropped. He'd really done it this time. "I cannot believe you, Potter. You are the biggest git I have _ever _met! I will _never _go out with you as long as I live!" She began to walk away, but chose to add something else as a finishing touch. "Oh, and I thought I'd return your kindness." With that, sparks shot out of her wand and all his papers were raining down on the hallway, the list he'd written among them.


	4. Chapter 4

"How did you get up here, Potter?" Lily glared at him from her bed. "Get out of the dorm. I don't have the energy to hurt you, but believe me, when I do…"

"Whoa, whoa," James answered, holding his palms out as if to stop her. "I was just checking on you. You weren't in the Great Hall at all today, or in the common room, or the library, and Remus said—"

"On top of embarrassing me because you find it absolutely _hilarious_ to ask me out, you're stalking me so you can track me down and annoy me?"

"Are you sick? You look a little—_oh_." James realized, a bit too late, and definitely not as smoothly as he'd liked to, that she'd been crying.

"There isn't even anyone around. There's no one to impress. You'd better leave before I find my wand, because when that happens, I'm hexing you until the next full moon."

"I sure hope not, I have a hot date that night," he answered, rubbing the back of his neck nervously and chuckling. If something was funny, Lily didn't get it.

"Lovely. Leave."

"Wait. Since you didn't eat today I brought you some food…because you didn't eat and usually people get hungry…look, just take it." James blushed as he crossed the room and set a treacle tart in front of her. "I have more," he added, "but I didn't know what you wanted and this was the easiest and…shit," he cursed himself for babbling. He couldn't do anything sweet without looking like a complete moron.

"You…" the girl looked at the pastry in her lap. "You got me food? _Why_?" She looked suspicious suddenly. "Is there a love potion in this?"

"No!" James answered, a little stunned. "No, I would never…" determined not to babble again, he regained composure. "I don't need to feed you a potion for you to realize how madly in love with me you are. You'll come around." He smirked. That was a nice save.

"You're so lucky that I'm hungry, you intolerable git."

"Evans," he began and sat down on the edge of the bed. Lily glared fiercely between bites and he quickly stood up again. "Is something the matter?"

She swallowed. "Everything is absolutely fine. But I think you've overstayed your welcome since the instant you entered the room."

"I brought you bacon, too," he said, changing the subject.

"Bacon?" Lily perked up immediately.

"And chocolate frogs," he nodded, smiling.

"You're kidding me," she said in disbelief as her stomach growled.

"And you can have it all if you'd like to tell me what's wrong."

Lily thought about that. She could give a short version, one that cut corners and wasn't too emotional. She sure as hell didn't feel like going to the kitchens anytime soon, and she was so hungry.

"Well, it started when my parents sent me an owl this morning about my sister. She's engaged and doesn't want me to come to the wedding. That's all."

James's brow furrowed. "That doesn't sound like all. Why doesn't your sister want you to come?"

"I said it was all. Now I believe you owe me some food."

James sighed and handed over what he'd brought her. "Well, if you ever want to talk again…"

"…and I don't."

"Right, well, goodnight. Feel better tomorrow." He turned to leave.

"Potter?" Lily called after the boy's back. He turned around, a hopeful glint in his eyes. "Thanks."

He smiled widely. "It was my pleasure." He left, leaving Lily thinking that she may have misjudged his character. But only a little.


	5. Chapter 5

It was a bright, autumn day as Lily sat at the edge of the lake, reading and enjoying her solitude as the gold leaves swirled around her. Immersed in the book, she easily lost track of time and before she knew it, the sun was sinking lazily below the horizon, making everything a warm color. She closed her book and got ready to stand up when she realized a large, black dog was about a meter away, looking right at her. It didn't seem unfriendly, but she didn't know of anyone owning dogs around here. Maybe Hagrid had finally gotten one like he always talked about doing. She wasn't sure.

"Hey, boy," she said softly, offering her hand tentatively. The dog trotted happily up to her and she was immediately relieved. "Where do you belong?"

The dog wagged its tail and sat, resting its head on her lap.

"You're awfully friendly, aren't you?" Lily said, gently petting the dog's ears. As if understanding her words, the dog gave a short bark and jumped to lick her face. "Ew! That's so gross!" she laughed. "Hey, since I don't know who owns you, would you like to walk with me back to my school? It's getting dark, and I bet no one will mess with me when I've got you around." She must have sounded crazy, she thought, talking to a dog like that. This dog was so different though, with intelligent eyes a friendly disposition.

She stood, placed a hand on the dog's neck, and began walking. "You know, muggles put collars on their pets. They have little tags saying who the animal belongs to and what the animal's name is," she said absent-mindedly. She may, in fact, have been going crazy because she thought she heard the dog snort at this.

As they neared the school, Lily noticed the dog's hair standing on end and its lips curled up.

"What is it, boy?" she asked, looking ahead. She heard a low growl coming from the dog that had been perfectly amicable just moments earlier.

And then she heard a very familiar voice shouting her name.

"Sev!" she answered. "Sev, I'm up here!"

As her friend neared them, the dog began barking.

"Lils, why do you have _that _mangy thing around?" Severus asked, eying the dog about the same way the dog was eying him.

"He's a very nice dog, I wanted to find its owner."

"Yeah," snorted Severus. "He looks _really _nice. He's probably a stray."

The dog nuzzled into Lily's side and made a show of pacing protectively in front of her, as if Severus was some dangerous force.

"I just don't think he likes you, Sev. Maybe you smell bad," she joked, smiling at him. The dog looked up at her. There was something in his eyes. He looked almost amused.

"Lily, you're so compassionate it worries me. I'm glad you're alright though; I was wondering where you'd gone all those hours. You'll never guess what Potter did earlier, but I'd like to get away from this mutt first. He's making me nervous."

Upon hearing that, the dog began to slink towards him as if to pounce. Before he could, though, the dog heard his own name being called.

"Sirius! Pads!" James came into view then and stopped to look at the situation unraveling in front of him. "Sirius?" he asked, disbelievingly. Abandoning his plan to attack Severus, the dog playfully ran at James, jumping on him and licking his face.

"Really, mate? You're going to get us in a lot of trouble one day," James whispered into his friend's furry ear.

"Do you know who owns this dog?" Lily asked.

"Um, that would be me," James answered quickly, not liking the idea of lying to Lily.

"_Really_?" she asked. "I'm certain that's against school rules. What's his name?"

The dog walked away from James and back to Lily, licking her had until she stroked his fur.

"Well," James said, making eye contact with Sirius, "I usually call him a _no good git _with a _bad sense of humor_."

"Um, what?" Lily asked.

"Wipe that glare off your greasy face, Snivellus." Turning to Lily, he added. "Anyway, my dog and I need to get going and find Sirius. We can continue this conversation at Hogsmeade." James winked.

"You can go ahead and take a nosedive off of the astronomy tower," she answered. Severus snickered at this. "You don't deserve such a sweet dog."

It was very, very clear to James how delighted Sirius was with himself at this point. "You're right, Lily, maybe I'll give him away and get a nice rat instead."

"Lils, I think we should go. It's getting cold and James has clearly lost his mind. You probably shouldn't talk to him anymore." Severus placed a hand on her shoulder and they turned away. "Actually, Lils, I'll catch up to you in just a second. My shoe's untied."

As Lily continued on, Severus drew his wand and turned around.

"Stupefy," James said, beating his rival to the punch and sounding bored as he did so. He walked in the opposite direction Lily had gone, the dog following close behind him.

Once they'd gotten out of sight, Sirius transformed back into a human and howled with laughter as they continued walking. "That was _so _good. That was _so _good. And Lily loved me! She was talking to me and petting me. I licked _your _Lily. Let's see a stag do that!"

James pinched the bridge of his nose. "If it was that great, why don't you just make it permanent?"

"Nah, I can't lick Lily-flower all the time. I've got to save some for you, mate," he turned to wink at James, whose mouth was in a hard line.

"The only reason I haven't punched you yet is because you're like my brother."

"The only reason I didn't let Lily adopt me is because you came out of nowhere and said you were my owner. Really, Prongsie, you should be thanking me."

"And why is that?"

"Because I was so 'sweet' as Lily so kindly put it, and then ol' Snively came up and I acted all defensive like he was evil. Which, you know, he is, but she had no idea it was me. So maybe she'll get it in her head that if an animal hates him, then he must be bad. And if an animal loves you, you must be bloody great."

James put Sirius in a headlock and quickly released him, full of mirth.

"You're a complete idiot, Pads, but I like you."


	6. Chapter 6

It was about six months after Severus graduated Hogwarts that he realized that women were attracted to him. He hadn't ever thought about it before. It had never occurred to him up until this point that, say, Bellatrix or Alecto were women. The only woman he'd ever thought about was Lily Evans, and although it hurt to think her name, she played on a continuous loop in his mind like some torturous yet angelic broken record.

That woman, the only one he ever loved, was with another man—an awful, pompous one in his opinion. A man who had no idea what he had. If Severus were ever somehow lucky enough to speak to Lily again, he would tell her just how much she meant. She had come into his world and illuminated everything. She was so lovely and bright, bright, bright that whenever she was around, everything else looked dim in comparison. Once she was gone, Severus was still blinded by the light.

He knew that his Lily wouldn't so much as look at him. She went home every night and took her clothes off for someone else and laid down next to him every night and the thought of all of it was enough to make him cringe. The thought of anyone next to him but Lily make him convulse equally.

So of course, when it dawned on him that the people who flocked to him saying he was so brooding and mysterious were, in fact, people with vaginas, he began to sleep with them. He felt a very strong emotion when his did. It wasn't pleasant, but it was better than the usual anger. He realized, but not until after the love of his life had died and he stopped having sex with faceless witches and muggles alike, that what he was feeling was the heaviness of something absolutely not right with the world.

Once his beautiful Lily had died, that heaviness pressed upon his chest and he carried it everywhere he went. It rubbed his heart raw and eventually, as all things do, his heart calloused over but never, ever healed. Not a day went by that he didn't think about her. Not a day went by that his burden weighed less. Somehow, though, he found that he had grown stronger and better.


	7. Chapter 7

"You're beautiful," James said into Lily's ear.

"Oh, stop it," she said, brushing him off. "I need to finish this essay."

"I can't help it," he said, brushing his lips against her neck. "Come on, that essay can wait," he said, grabbed her arm and attempting to pull her up. When she smacked him away, he pouted.

Lily looked up and laughed at his expression. "Well don't give me that look," she said. "When I'm done we can do whatever you want."

His eyes lit up from behind his glasses. "Whatever?"  
>"Whatever. Well. I mean I'm not going to go streaking through Hogsmeade, but anything within reason."<p>

"Alright, no streaking. Is it allowed to involve nudity, though?" James asked, smiling devilishly.

"James! Stop distracting me!" She threw one of her books at him, and missed.

"Oh right, well you get finished. I'll get ready for the big night of doing whatever I want." He leaned in closer, bringing his mouth centimeters from his girlfriend's own. "I plan to take advantage of this opportunity." He kissed her chastely, and exited the room.

Lily sat there, flustered her a minute, and began writing again. He always knew just what to say frustrate her—sexually or otherwise.


End file.
